Open Droids, Persist Ventures
Founder, President
Global Citizen
Focusing on the highest leverage strategies to accelerate the inevitable golden age. In my youth I was captured by the idea of technology as this force that was constantly decreasing the limit between idea and reality. Which after reading Kurzweil's Singularity is Near, made this age of magic something I knew would come in my lifetime. I believe this ARC of human progress is emerging through AI, Robotics, and Crypto. These are the respective manifestations of the mind, body, and spirit which bring the golden age into existence. After selling my manufacturing company, I saw the most potent path I could take being a savior for my younger self who craved an earlier onboarding to the exponential path with some guidance and support. This led me to the creation of a neo-institution, Persist Ventures. Modeled after Thiel Fellowship and with Jim O'Neill's help, we directed our attention toward India and created the largest online hackathons, with over 250,000 applicants from which I funded over 30 teams with insanely impressive talent and speed building in AI x Crypto. The missing piece that has consumed my mind as I started working on it, and had built a management team to operate Persist is robotics. In deep recognition of the importance of this foundational piece in the trajectory of humanity, and the stewards which will play roles in deciding to what degree boundless automation and control over the material world. I'm proud to say Open Droids has recently become the largest open source robotics RnD program.
Call-to-Action
It's time to create superhero university. I see India as the best place on planet earth to create the future we all can fathom. Each of us is filled with the bounties of idea, strategies, stories, non-profits, and companies that can bring forth the golden age. | Luckily our existential activations have led us to community which supports seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Yet so many globally have no connection to a powerful narrative enough to give them hope for a bright future. WHAT A MISSING PIECE. We all know our institutions need a massive upgrade to lead us from earth one, to earth won. Here's how: A university which decides to be radically progressive at creating the best talent today, is the greatest move a university, or nation could make. As mentioned earlier: AI Robotics Crypto Are the most important industries in existence today. The courses already exist to support a bridge into those being Software, Engineering, and Media. Yet programmers who do not use AI today and change their model every 2 months are leagues behind. Engineering students who could reshape the future of robotics spend time repeating the same projects that do not matter in the space anymore, while an abundance of low hanging extreme potential exists. And most importantly the entire social influencer class is happening outside of ANY INSTITUTION. Whose media students are only hired off their portfolio of work, while they do written assignments to try and learn the art of creation? After this excursion I am visiting St. Francis Institute of Technology which James Soosai is eager to have Persist Ventures and Open Droids international offices at this campus, whose agreed to approve these courses for the most practical, applied, Montessori-style school on earth. I am giving full-ride scholarships from Persist to all students, as well as guaranteed job placement at our portfolio of companies, or as a startup leader. A larger campus grounds, or existing student body which can solve for short timelines for recruiting a student body is something I am eager to lock in and upgrade from an existing student body standpoint. I want this campus to be an Earth One fellows HQ, international hub of great minds, and the spearhead of the revolution we all know is possible. Coming from leading a content house with Hype House and Disney channel cast, I know the power of group storytelling, and the story of a student body learning to be creators will create the most viral university on the world, partly because of my existing influencer network who would love to have a campus and multi hundred person shooting environment to collab with. Something Mr. Beast spends millions of dollars every time to set up. (This process then recruits existing influencers who are held back at their current schools, creating a feedback loop of narrative power accumulation). I believe this mission tells one of the main stories which needs to be told: that we can, and should radically transform our institutions to meet and support the emerging world. The cherry on top is that it creates a platform from which all our visions can gain the recognition and coordination power they deserve.
